Advanced Photo System (APS) is a film format for consumer still photography first marketed in 1996 and discontinued in 2011. It was sold by various manufacturers under several brand names, including Eastman Kodak (Advantix), FujiFilm (Nexia), Agfa (Futura) and Konica (Centuria). Development was led by Kodak starting in the mid-1980s.
Like prior attempts to displace 135 film from the amateur photography market, including 126 film (Instamatic), 110, and disc, APS used a film cartridge to reduce loading errors. APS also could reduce camera and lens size and weight by using a smaller image format; unlike the older amateur formats, image quality would be maintained by using newly-developed films, featuring emulsions with finer grain size and a flatter base material. The other major innovation delivered by APS was the "information exchange" process in which the camera recorded data directly on the film; this would simplify cropping prints to a desired aspect ratio and potentially could provide photofinishers with exposure data to optimize print quality. However, by the time APS was released in 1996, the first digital cameras had appeared, providing many of the same benefits with the additional convenience and economy of eliminating the developing process.
